Drive for starting internal-combustion engines



Nov. 24, 1925. 1,562,683

0. BRISBOIS DRIVE FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Original Filed NOV. 1921 Fzy. 4,

Oil-2m BH'SLOZ'S,

" fnvenor,

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Patented New. 24, was.

r STATES ODI LON BRISBOIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Application filed November 3, 1921, Serial No. 512,428. Renewed August31, 1925.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that, I, ODILON BRISBOIS, a citizen of the United States,and 'a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois,hare-invented certain new and useful Improvements in Drives for StartingInternal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanism which is interposed between arotatable member of an internal combustion engine and a motor, usuallyan electrically driven motor, to transmit motion from said motor to saidrotatable member, usually the balance wheel of the engine.

Among the objects of this invention is to obtain a mechanism which doesnot require the. use of a yielding member as a spring to prevent thestripping of the gear teeth which are mounted on the rotatable member ofthe engine, or on a gear pinion intermeshing therewith and driven by amotor, which will not become broken or. otherwise injured. in case ofbackfire in the cylinder of the engine while said rotatable member. is

being driven by the motor; and which will yield so as not to injure orbreak the. motor in case of said back fire. Additional objects aretoobtain a mechanism which is simple in construction, of few parts,certain in operation and economical in construction.

I have illustrated a construction embodying this invention in thedrawing accompanying and forming a part of this speclfication, m which-Fig. 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 an end elevation;

Fig. 3 a vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1, viewed as indicated byarrows; and

Fig. 4 a vertical longitudinal section of the cylindrical member of thedrive.

A reference --character applied to desi mate a given part indicates saidpart throu hout the several figures of the drawing,-w erever the sameappears.

A represents a cylindrical member; B a

' partition substantially midway of said cylindrical member, and b anaperture in sand partition. represents a spiral slot in the wall of saidcylindrical member, to one side of saidpartition; C indicating one endof said slot, and C" the other endthereof, (see- Figs. 1 and a). Drepresents a removable and to said cylindrical-member, on the side,

of said partition opposite to said spirally attending slot End D isprovided with external screw threads, cl which engage with correspondinginternal threads on the inner wall of cylindrical member A; and

the end D and partition B, and f representsa key or feather by means ofwhich the hub F is secured to said shaft, to rotate therewith. G', G, G,represents longitudinally extending recesses on the periphery of hub F.H, H, H, represent rollers in said recesses G, G, G, and h, h, h,springs which abut at one end against said rollers and tend to forcesaid rollers into close contact with the inner face of cylindricalmember A and the side face of recesses G, G, G. 'A roller clutch is thusobtained between hub F and cylindrical member A, when shaft 'E and saidhub turn in the direction indicated by arrow X, in Fi 3.. The angle ofthe side of recess G, with which the roller H is in contact, relative tothe inner face of the cylindrical member A, at the point where saidrollers contact therewith, controls the load which said clutch willcarry, and when an overload occurs, as in the case of a back fire in theengine cylinder, said clutch will give, and permit the cylindricalmember A to turn backwards. a

1 represents a pinion gear wheel, which is loosely mounted on shaft E. Jrepresents a small section of the rim of a balance wheel of an engine,and j a gear tooth of a car ring which is mounted on the balance w eelto turn therewith. K represents an abutment on gear pinion I which isinspirally extending slot C, and moves freely therein from one endthereof to theother. Gear pinion I is longitudinally movable on shaft E,into and out of the chamber Y, (see Fig. 4.) said movement out of saidchamber being controlled by the rotation of the cylindrlcal member A,said gear pinion not rotating; and by said longitudinal movement itmoves into mesh with the ar teeth (j) on the balance wheel J. In ig. 1said pinion gear is represented as having been moved partiall out ofchamber Y and in engagement with said teeth. 3'.

L represents a flat spring member whichis secured on abutment K toextend parallel to shaft E, and near to contact with the outer surfaceof the cylindrical member A, andm represents a slight abutment on saidcylindrical member, with which abutment said spring L contacts as saidcylindrical member commences to rotate when the pinnot su ciently largeto prevent its mov-' ing under the spring L when the cylindrical memberA is started suddenly, bythe energizing of the motor which turns shaftE.

The operation of the drive is,

When shaft E is rotated rapidly by a motor the rotation of cylindricalmember A 'moves the pinion gear I longitudinally on shaft E, into meshwith teeth 7', and when said teeth are pro erly in mesh the end 0 ofspirally exten ing slot C is in contact with abutment K, and continuedrotation of'said cylindrical member rotates said pinion member and turnsthe balance wheel J. The sudden start which is given to the pinionmember as the abutment K contacts with end C of the slot C tends to turnthe rollers H, causing a slip to clutch; and said slip is suflicient toprevent the stripping of the teeth 9' or the teeth of the pinion gear;and the necessity of using a spring is obviated. Also, in case of a backfire in a cylinder of the engine said rollers will give as they contacton lines of such converging tangent as shown in Fig. 3 that they Wlllslip under a predetermined load, said back fire causin an overloadthereon, and no injury will be one either on the gear teeth of theengine or pinion, or on any part of the drive or motor which is arrangedto drive shaft E.

When 'the engine is in action the rotation of the balance wheel thereofrotates the pinion at a greater'speed than does the shaft E,

and the pinion is moved by the slot C longitudinally on the shaft E, outof engagement with the teeth on the balance wheel,

I claim:

1. A rotatably mounted shaft, a c lindrical member, a partition wall anda cad at one end of said cylindricah member, said partition wall andsaid head loosely mounted on said shaft, 8. spirallyextending slot insaid cylindrical member, a hub on said shaft secured thereto to turntherewith, said hub provided with longitudinally extending recesses onthe periphery thereof, in combination with rollers in said recesses andmeans to yieldingly maintainsaid rollers in contact with the inner faceof said cylindrical member and one side of said recesses, a gear pinionmember loosely mounted on said shaft and an abutment on said pinionmember arshaft, and a spirally extending slot in said cylindricalmember, a hub on said shaft, and

secured thereto to turn therewith, longitudi-- nally extending recesseson the periphery of said hub, rollers in said recesses and sprm arranged;-to yieldingly hold said rollers 1n contact with one side of saidrecesses and the inner face of said cylindrical member,'in combinationwith a gear pinion member loosely mounted concentric to said shaft andan-abutment on said pinion member arranged to move freely in said slotand to be turned thereby when at the end of said slot which is adjacentto the open end of said cylindrical member.

3. A rotatably mounted shaft, a cylindrical member provided with aartition substantially midway thereof an with a head at one end, saidpartition and head loosely mounted on said shaft, a spirally extendingslot in said cylindrical member, one end'of said slot adjacent to theopen end of said member, a hub mounted on said shaft and arranged totravel therewith,-a friction connection between said hub and saidcylindrical member arranged to rotate said cylindrical member and carrya determined load, when said shaft turns in a given direction,

in combination with a gear pinion loosely mounted concentric to saidshaft, and an abutment on said pinion member arranged to move in saidslot from end to end thereof and to be turned by the contactof said endstherewith.

4. A rotatably mounted shaft, a cylindrical member loosely mountedconcentric to said shaft, and a gear pinion member also loosely mountedconcentric to said shaft and movable longitudinally into and out ofsaidcylindrical member. in combination with a friction connection betweensaid shaft and said cylindrica-lflfmember arranged to drive sa'idclindricja determined loa when said shaft turns in a given direction, anda driving connection between said cylindrical member and said pinionmember arran ed to move said pinion member longitudina ly and subsequentto said movement to rotate it.

member under a 5. In an engine starter, a shaft, a sleeve member havinga spiral slot mounted upon said shaft, a yieldable one-way clutch foroperatively connecting said shaft and sleeve, and a gear loosely mountedon said shaft within said sleeve and having a stud pro jecting throughsaid spiral slot. p

6. In an engine starter, a shaft, a gear loosely mounted thereon, amember for antomatically connecting said gear and shaft when said shaftis rotated in one direction, and for automatically disconnectin saidgear when said shaft rotates in the ot er di rection, said member beingso constructed as to break its driving connection with said shaft undera predetermined load when said shaft is in driving relation with saidmem ber. v

7. In an engine starter, a shaft, a driving member loosely mounted' uponsaid shaft,

and a unidirectional clutch for automatically connecting said shaft anddriving member when said shaft 1s rotated 1n one d1recback kick of theengine.-

- loosel a stud,

tion and adapted to yield in 8 In an engine starter, a I shaft, .a gearmonntedjupon said shaft, and having upon said shaft and receiving saidstud, and a roller clutch between said shaft and sleeve adapted forautomatically forming a connection between said sleeve and shaft whensaid shaft is rotated in one directionand adapted to yield under apredetermined load.

' 'ODILON BRISBOIS.

the event of a a sleeve having a spiral'slot mounted-

